Stuart Townsend

A handsome, dark-haired Irish actor with a sweet schoolboy look and an abundance of charm, Stuart Townsend was an affirmed film lover but gave no thought to acting until a drama student girlfriend led...
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Casting is one of the most important and mysterious parts of filmmaking. Not only are actors selected based on their chemistry, skill, and buzz, there is also a whole mess of behind-the-scenes coordination. Actors have missed out on major career-defining roles for all sorts of reasons. Iconic roles like Indiana Jones, Wolverine, and Marty McFly all had different original actors. Careers, film history, and even a major celebrity marriage have all been forever altered by casting changes. Some actors have missed out on A-list careers. Here are a few of the most shocking movie casting changes.
GALLERY: Shocking Movie Roles That Were Recast
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Departing Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark star Reeve Carney is trading the world of comic books for classic literature after signing on to play Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray on TV. The singer/actor, who also played Taylor Swift's love interest in her I Knew You Were Trouble video, recently announced he will be leaving the Broadway show and he already has another big gig - he has landed a leading role in U.S. cable network Showtime's new drama series Penny Dreadful.
The series revolves around literature's most famed creepy characters, including Frankenstein's monster, Gray and Dracula.
Wilde's Gray kept his youth while a self-portrait aged in an attic.
Carney joins a cast that includes Timothy Dalton, Josh Hartnett and Eva Green. The series will debut in the spring (14).
Dorian Gray was last portrayed on screen by Ben Barnes in a 2009 movie and Stuart Townsend in 2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

When it was announced that writer/director Lynne Ramsey was joining forces with Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman on the Western Jane Got a Gun, the project sounded like stars aligning. It got better: cast opposite of the Black Swan star was the reliable, mesmerizing Michael Fassbender. As the film trekked forward towards the beginning of its shoot, it continued to gain prestigious additions, including a villain in the form of Zero Dark Thirty's Joel Edgerton. It sounded incredible.
And then it imploded.
Last week, Fassbender departed the film, a mere week before cameras were set to begin rolling. He was quickly replaced by Edgerton, who bumped up to the starring role opposite Portman, with Jude Law jumping on board as the film's villain (Edgerton's original role). Then on May 19 — what was going to be the first day of shooting — news broke that Ramsey had left the project, never arriving to set. With money invested, sets built, and production as underway as it could be without a person in the director's chair, producers on Jane Got a Gunscrambled to find a replacement. The ship wasn't going down, even if the captain had bailed.
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Now the hopeful upswing in the debacle: in less than 24 hours, a replacement for Ramsey has been found. Deadline reports that Warrior director Gavin O'Connor has been hired to helm the picture. There have been casualties by the switch: after O'Connor was revealed to be on board, Law was announced to have left the film, his involvement originally linked to the idea of working with Ramsay. But Edgerton and Portman (a producer on the female revenge flick) are still on board.
This isn't the first time a high-profile movie has suffered from talent shuffling — but it might be the instance closest to the wire. In 2010, after two years of working on both the scripts and designs for The Hobbit movies, director Guillermo Del Toro picked up and left New Zealand, paving the way for last December's Peter Jackson-helmed epic. Del Toro has never explained his decision, suggesting that multiple factors influenced his decision to exit the movie — many pointed to MGM's ongoing financial issues. In less analytical departures, X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn was two weeks away from directing 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand before bailing on the film due to creative clashes with 20th Century Fox. For some, having their vision represented is more important than avoiding a public frenzy.
Sometimes it's not even up to the directors. Steven Soderbergh was removed from his version of Moneyball days before shooting the Brad Pitt-led baseball drama. It was another case of the men with the money not seeing eye to eye with their director's vision: Soderbergh wanted a docudrama version of Moneyball that would intercut Pitt's performance with documentary footage. The idea didn't jive with Sony Pictures, who replaced Soderbergh with Bennett Miller.
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Ramsey penned the script for Jane Got a Gun, and it's possible that, even when the dust settles from the fiasco, she'll walk away with accolades for the film. The same thing happened to director Brenda Chapman, removed from the director's chair by Pixar halfway through her work on Brave. She ended up receiving a "co-director" credit — a title that earned her an Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 2013 Academy Awards.
As is apparent from Jane's bumpy road to completion, actors are also capable of derailing a movie and sending behind-the-scenes players scrambling for replacements. Jean Claude Van Damme was set to play the title creature in Predator before ditching the movie last minute. He wasn't keen on the requirements of the role, which included wearing a bulky costume and remaining invisible for half the film. Eric Stoltz was infamously replaced by Michael J. Fox weeks into shooting Back to the Future after Fox (the original choice for the role) became available. And most recently, Peter Jackson, unhappy with actor Stuart Townsend's work as Aragon in Lord of the Rings, kindly asked the thespian to step down, eventually hiring Viggo Mortensen for the part.
On-set shuffling isn't a common occurrence in Hollywood, but it's not a sign of disaster either. A film can go both ways: X-Men: The Last Stand, helmed by back-up director Brett Ratner, is looked down upon as a low point in the franchise. Moneyball went on to earn a handful of Oscar nominations. O'Connor is a competent director who impressed (and earned box office cred) with Warrior. Having most recently directed the pilot for The Americans, he knows a thing or two about stepping into someone else's sandbox and building a great castle. If Jane Got a Gun was going to be strong with Ramsey in the driver's seat, it was going to be strong for a number of reasons beyond her directorial efforts (although it sounded promising in the hands of the visually-inclined auteur). Is Jane destined for disaster? Only if they never roll camera.
Which, if the set spontaneously combusts in an act of Godly smiting, could very well be the case.
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Evan Agostini/AP Photo]
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Luck of the Irish? With stars like Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell, and Liam Neeson on their side, we'd sure say so. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we here at Hollywood.com wanted to pay tribute to some of the stars you didn't know where Irish (and some you definitely did).
Whether they're actors like Ciaran Hinds who are experts at masking their Irish accent (the guy sounds like Foghorn Leghorn in pretty much everything!) or stars you could have sworn were Brits (Stuart Townsend and Pierce Brosnan, we're looking at you), raise your glass to these Irish stars in honor of St. Patty's Day!
[Photo credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Photo]
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In a post-Harry Potter Avatar and Lord of the Rings world the descriptors "sci-fi" and "fantasy" conjure up particular imagery and ideas. The Hunger Games abolishes those expectations rooting its alternate universe in a familiar reality filled with human characters tangible environments and terrifying consequences. Computer graphics are a rarity in writer/director Gary Ross' slow-burn thriller wisely setting aside effects and big action to focus on star Jennifer Lawrence's character's emotional struggle as she embarks on the unthinkable: a 24-person death match on display for the entire nation's viewing pleasure. The final product is a gut-wrenching mature young adult fiction adaptation diffused by occasional meandering but with enough unexpected choices to keep audiences on their toes.
Panem a reconfigured post-apocalyptic America is sectioned off into 12 unique districts and ruled under an iron thumb by the oppressive leaders of The Capitol. To keep the districts producing their specific resources and prevent them from rebelling The Capitol created The Hunger Games an annual competition pitting two 18-or-under "tributes" from each district in a battle to the death. During the ritual tribute "Reaping " teenage Katniss (Lawrence) watches as her 12-year-old sister Primrose is chosen for battle—and quickly jumps to her aid becoming the first District 12 citizen to volunteer for the games. Joined by Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) a meek baker's son and the second tribute Effie the resident designer and Haymitch a former Hunger Games winner-turned-alcoholic-turned-mentor Katniss rides off to The Capitol to train and compete in the 74th Annual Hunger Games.
The greatest triumph of The Hunger Games is Ross' rich realization of the book's many worlds: District 12 is painted as a reminiscent Southern mining town haunting and vibrant; The Capitol is a utopian metropolis obsessed with design and flair; and The Hunger Games battleground is a sprawling forest peppered with Truman Show-esque additions that remind you it's all being controlled by overseers. The small-scale production value adds to the character-first approach and even when the story segues to larger arenas like a tickertape parade in The Capitol's grand Avenue of Tributes hall it's all about Katniss.
For fans the script hits every beat a nearly note-for-note interpretation of author Suzanne Collins' original novel—but those unfamiliar shouldn't worry about missing anything. Ross knows his way around a sharp screenplay (he's the writer of Big Pleasantville and Seabiscuit) and he's comfortable dropping us right into the action. His characters are equally as colorful as Panem Harrelson sticking out as the former tribute enlivened by the chance to coach winners. He's funny he's discreet he's shaded—a quality all the cast members share. As a director Ross employs a distinct often-grating perspective. His shaky cam style emphasizes the reality of the story but in fight scenarios—and even simple establishing shots of District 12's goings-on—the details are lost in motion blur.
But the dread of the scenario is enough to make Hunger Games an engrossing blockbuster. The lead-up to the actual competition is an uncomfortable and biting satire of reality television sports and everything that commands an audience in modern society. Katniss' brooding friend Gale tells her before she departs "What if nobody watched?" speculating that carnage might end if people could turn away. Unfortunately they can't—forcing Katniss and Peeta to become "stars" of the Hunger Games. The duo are pushed to gussy themselves up put on a show and play up their romance for better ratings. Lawrence channels her reserved Academy Award-nominated Winter's Bone character to inhabit Katniss' frustration with the system. She's great at hunting but she doesn't want to kill. She's compassionate and considerate but has no interest in bowing down to the system. She's a leader but she knows full well she's playing The Capitol's game. Even with 23 other contestants vying for the top spot—like American Idol with machetes complete with Ryan Seacrest stand-in Caesar Flickerman (the dazzling Stanley Tucci)—Katniss' greatest hurdle is internal. A brave move for a movie aimed at a young audience.
By the time the actual Games roll around (the movie clocks in at two and a half hours) there's a need to amp up the pace that never comes and The Hunger Games loses footing. Katniss' goal is to avoid the action hiding in trees and caves waiting patiently for the other tributes to off themselves—but the tactic isn't all that thrilling for those watching. Luckily Lawrence Hutcherson and the ensemble of young actors still deliver when they cross paths and particular beats pack all the punch an all-out deathwatch should. PG-13 be damned the film doesn't skimp on the bloodshed even when it comes to killing off children. The Hunger Games bites off a lot for the first film of a franchise and does so bravely and boldly. It may not make it to the end alive but it doesn't go down without a fight.
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Charlize Theron has already established herself as a highly accomplished actress, but she's about to embark on her most challenging role yet: motherhood. Theron's rep confirmed the exciting news in a statement to Us magazine on March 14, saying, "Charlize Theron has adopted a child. She is the proud mom of a healthy baby boy named Jackson."
While very few details about the adoption have been released, a source close Theron revealed that little Jackson was born in the United States and is of African-American decent.
And even though the 36-year-old star will be taking on the full responsibility of parenting all by herself, the insider claimed the first-time mom has never been happier. "She has always wanted to be a mom," said the source. "She is glad to be able to do it on her own now and is so happy to be a mom."
Theron split from actor Stuart Townsend in January 2010, ending a nine-year relationship. This prompted her to begin a whole new chapter in her life, which now includes a baby. If she's as great of a mother as she is an actress, it's safe to say the child is in very good hands.
Congratulations to Theron and her little bundle of joy!
Source: Us Weekly

The Oscar-winning Monster star is a first-time mum after taking in a "healthy baby boy named Jackson", according to her representative.
UsMagazine.com reports the tot was born in the U.S. and is of African-American descent.
A source tells the website, "She has always wanted to be a mum. She is glad to be able to do it on her own now and is so happy to be a mum."
Theron, 36, will begin parenting as a single mother - her nine-year relationship with actor Stuart Townsend ended in January, 2010.
But the South African-born beauty has made no secret of her desire to enter motherhood - shortly before splitting from Townsend, she said, "I feel very blessed to have had a certain amount of success and now I'm reaching the point where I would love to be a mum.
"I know I want to raise a big family and it's just a question of time - I know I'm ready for that phase of my life."

Relationships in Hollywood are notoriously short-lived, but one couple has managed to go the distance, despite the fact that they never tied the knot. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have been together since 1983 and raised four children together (they have one son together and three kids from previous relationships), yet Hawn says they have no intention of getting married.
So, why has their relationship lasted nearly three decades? Hawn tells Radio 4's Woman's Hour, "There's a trick. You have to like the way each other smell." She isn't talking about maintaining a certain standard of cleanliness. She explains, "I think it's that the pheromones haven't gone away. The chemicals are still popping."
That isn't to say that their relationship has always been rosy. "You don't aways agree with your mate. You don't even like them sometimes. But there is something there that sparks you. You have to focus on that as you move on," says Hawn, adding, "I think Kurt's an extraordinary person. I love being with him and I love our family and I love our family life."
In recent years a few notoriously unwed couples called it quits, including Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, who were together for 23 years, and Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend, who dated for 9 years. However, there are still quite a few couples who share Hawn and Russell's belief that marriage isn't a requirement for a long and happy relationship:
Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick
Don't expect to see another Kardashian wedding special on E! anytime soon. Though Kourtney and Scott have been together since 2007 and are expecting their second child, she declared on an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, "I definitely don't want to get married just for the sake of getting married. This is my life. I don't need a piece of paper to make it a family unit."
Jon Hamm and Jennifer WestfeldtThough Don seems to be headed into another ill-fated marriage on Mad Man, in real life Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt have been happily unmarried since 1997. In 2012 Hamm told Parade, "I don't have the marriage chip, and neither of us have the greatest examples of marriages in our families. But Jen is the love of my life, and we've already been together four times longer than my parents were married."
Liev Shreiber and Naomi WattsLike Hamm and Westfeldt, Liev Shreiber and Naomi Watts, who have been together since 2005 and have two sons, say their family history made them uninterested in marriage. “It’s not like I’ve grown up having this dream of a fairy-tale wedding,” Watts told Paradein 2009. “My mother married twice and had two divorces. And Liev comes from the same kind of background. Maybe one day we’ll just wake up and go, ‘Hey, let’s do this.’ And maybe not. He and I have a family. We’re very much together. We just don’t have that certificate, and that’s okay with both of us. He gave me a beautiful ring, although I’m not wearing it right now.”
Angelina Jolie and Brad PittThough we've been hearing rumors about their impending nuptials for the seven years that they've been together, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt famously declared that they won't even consider getting hitched until same-sex marriage is legalized. Though, recently Pitt told The Hollywood Reporter that they haven't ruled out the possibility.
He explained, "We made this declaration some time ago that we weren’t going to do it till everyone can. But I don’t think we’ll be able to hold out. It means so much to my kids, and they ask a lot. And it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment."
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman GrahamOprah may be the most famously unmarried celebrity, but in May 2012 she told O, The Oprah Magazine that she and Stedman Graham were once set to marry -- she just didn't enjoy being engaged.
She said, "Actually, Stedman asked me to marry him, and at first I said 'Yes!' but it turned out that I wanted to be asked to be married more than I wanted to be married ... It just felt like the wrong thing for me. This was at the same time that I was supposed to have the book coming out. We were in Miami, in the back of a limousine, coming back from the party with the big shrimp, and Stedman asks, 'So when is the book coming out?' The book was coming out September 14 or something, and our wedding had been scheduled for September 8. We had a date and everything.
So Stedman says, 'Well, I don't want to have my wedding in competition with your book.' And I remember thinking, 'Yes! Really? Okay, great! I ended up canceling both, and we have not discussed it since that day."
Source: Press Association
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"I've been in serious relationships from the time I was 19 and I'm single for the first time in my life since then. I had to make a real conscious effort to rediscover myself and it's hard.. But there's something really powerful in being OK with being alone, especially for women." Charlize Theron is finally embracing single life after splitting form longterm partner Stuart Townsend last year (10).

Charlize Theron may be an Oscar-winning actress, but there's one role she never prepared herself for: a mid-thirties single woman. In an interview for the December issue of Vogue, the Hollywood star reveals, "I've never been single. This is the first time in my life. From the time I was 19, I've been in relationships, literally gone from one to the other within a month."
Theron split with her husband of nine years, Stuart Townsend, in January 2010, just months before she began working on her new film, Young Adult. But according to Theron, the breakup really helped reinvigorate her acting career and allowed her to get back in touch with herself. "I'd gotten out of a relationship, and I was in this really floaty place. My feet weren't touching the ground. I just kind of turned to [director Jason Reitman] and was like, 'I feel like me again,'" she said.
Despite their growing differences though, Theron still tried to save her marriage to Townsend from the inevitable D-word that seems to plague most Hollywood romances. Regarding her relationship, the Oscar winner said, "It was sinking, and I had to give it a fight," she explains. "I really wanted to try and make it work. That was the priority. I wouldn't do it any different way."
But now Theron will be back to dominating the silver screen in a big way as she gears up for her role as the evil queen in in 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman. And while she's out for blood in the movie, she had nothing but nice things to say about her co-star, Kristen Stewart, who plays the fair Snow White. Theron tells the magazine, "There's this really lovely quality about her that just doesn't give a f--k. A lot of people say they don't, but then they go home and cry and pop a Xanax. Kristen actually doesn't give a f--k. That's what's so refreshing about her." Additionally, she adds, "I'm looking forward to killing her and taking her beauty."
I think I speak for everyone when I say we're glad to have her back!
Click on the image below for more photos of Charlize Theron. Source: US, Vogue

Played husband and wife, opposite Charlize Theron in the thriller "Trapped"

Cast in "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" with Sean Connery

Returned to the London stage to appear opposite Helen Mirren in "Orpheus Descending"

Feature debut in Gilles MacKinnon's "Trojan Eddie"

Joined Dan Futterman and Kate Beckinsale for the British film "Shooting Fish"

Garnered praise for his leading role in "Resurrection Man"

Cast as Lestat in the film adaptation of Anne Rice's "Queen of the Damned"

Raised in Howth, Dublin, Ireland

Co-starred with Ryan Reynolds and Emily Mortimer in "Chaos Theory"

Starred with real life love Charlize Theron in the WWII drama "Head in the Clouds"

Acted in Michael Winterbottom's acclaimed "Wonderland"

Summary

A handsome, dark-haired Irish actor with a sweet schoolboy look and an abundance of charm, Stuart Townsend was an affirmed film lover but gave no thought to acting until a drama student girlfriend led to his enrolling in Dublin's Gaiety School of Acting. Upon graduating in 1994, he formed the theater company Ether for Lunch with friends. In 1995 he was cast in Gillies MacKinnon's "Trojan Eddie" (released in the USA in 1997), playing Richard Harris' nephew and Stephen Rea's assistant. A small role as the Irishman who sparks a sexual obsession in troubled Iris (Samantha Morton) in Carine Adler's gripping "Under the Skin" (1997) followed.

Met on the set of "Trapped" (2002); Began dating in 2001; In 2007, the couple declared themselves "married" despite never making the union official in a ceremony; Split in 2010

Peter Townsend

Father

Played in the 1969 and 1971 Ryder Cups

Lorna Townsend

Mother

Died of a brain hemorrhage in 1994 at age 43

Education

Name

The Gaiety School of Acting

Notes

"It was like, 'I'm really in the movies now,' I've got a gun and there's lots of slo-mo shots... yessss!" - Townsend on starring in the action thriller "Resurrection Man" to Empire magazine, February 1998

"The more movies I've done, the more I've realized that certain aspects of the project are of greater importance that others. In the beginning you take jobs because your dying to get that first part. Then after a while it becomes about who's in the film. At the end of the day, for me, the script is the most important thing. You can elevate bad material, but you can't make it great. there are those rare occasions when the story really speaks to you, and that's what you work for." - Townsend quoted in Interview magazine, September 2004